Theological Commentary: Click Here
In these
chapters, we hear Paul talk about differences in the faith. When we speak about things like marriage – or
for the Jews, kosher regulations – things get dicey. Some people think one things while another
people think another. All sides
typically think that they have great reasons for believing as they do. What are we to do?
It is in
times like this that I like to remember the motto of the Moravian Church. “In essentials, unity. In non-essentials, liberty. In all things, love.” In other words, when consider things essential
to salvation, we must be united. When
considering things non-essential to salvation, we grant liberty. Whatever we do, we should do it in love.
I find this
to be greatly in line with what Paul is teaching here. To use the examples that he uses, when
considering marriage we should not think marriage as something that affects
salvation. God can and will save those
who marry. He can and will save those
who abstain from marriage.
The same is
true about what we eat. God can save us
if we are vegan, vegetarian, only eat some meat, eat all meat, and even if we
eat meat that has been offered to other gods!
God can also save us if we don’t do any of those things. What is what we eat in comparison to the
redemptive love of God as shown to use through Christ?
In the end,
what is significant is that we are loved by God and salvation comes through
Him. He can save us and He will save us
so long as we love Him. We should not
let our differences in non-essentials interfere with the unity that we have
through Christ and His salvation.
That being
said, we should also be careful not to offend intentionally. If I do something that in my understanding of
God’s love makes sense to me and I interact with someone who believes
differently than I do, I should be willing to stop my behavior to keep them
from being offended until I am no longer in their presence. If it is not essential to salvation, I can
suppress it without being offended myself.
When I look
at the world around me, I think that this is the biggest teaching for our
current culture. Our culture is all
about the individual and the desires of the individual. That’s all well and good when our desires don’t
impact others negatively. But when our
desires impact others negatively, I should withhold my desires and not superimpose
a worse life on others so that my desires are met. When a culture imposes the will of the individual
over the good of the community, breakdown of the community is inevitable. Conflict will naturally arise.
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